Consistent snow and freezing rain is sending the city’s graders and sanders back to main roads they’ve already cleared, the city said on Saturday.

About 200 graders and sanders hit the snowy streets on Saturday, working on major roads as well as plowing through residential bus routes.

The city says the additional snowfall from Friday means its crews are scheduled to start over this weekend, working to deal with rough roads and an ice layer that's making it difficult for graders to completely scrape off.

“With the rain that fell first, then we got the wet snow, and driving over it, you’ve got this coating underneath, it’s about maybe a centimetre deep of ice and it really makes for washboards when we try to break through it,” said Bob Dunford, the city’s director of roadway maintenance.

“The graders are working on trying to get it up but what we’re going to have to do is put down a lot of the abrasives with our chip in there to try and chew it up if you will, until we get warmer weather, that’s what our plan is.”

This is the fourth straight day of snow-clearing efforts by crews.

Dunford says the city is happy with the work that’s being done and says no matter how well-resourced you may be, Mother Nature can still make things difficult.

“I think the crews are doing very well. Everyone is putting in all of their efforts to get this done,” he said.

“Any program, you design your program and then have all the resources for what you’d expect out of a typical winter and perhaps a little bit more but that’s not to say that nature can’t overwhelm you no matter what you got and that’s going to happen on occasion.”

A seasonal parking ban is still in effect for bus routes, which means vehicles are prohibited from parking on streets where a seasonal parking ban sign is visible.

The ban officially went into effect on Friday and more than 200 tickets were handed out for those who had not moved their vehicles.

“Just because you think that a grader has been through, do not park on collector bus routes until the ban is lifted because you can be ticketed and towed,” Dunford said.